Post by Catholic Answers

As it is so often on this side of the veil, it is with equal parts sorrow and joy that we announce that, as of July 1, Tim Staples has retired from his post at Catholic Answers. Sorrow to be bidding farewell to our brother in arms but joy in considering the magnificence of his life of service in the spread of the gospel. Tim's name can be said in the same breath as Bart Starr's and Hank Aaron's. There are more recent celebrity athletes with more sparkly stats, perhaps, but Tim belongs in this company not only for his greatness in his field—Tim is the original apologetics GOAT—but also, because, like Starr and Aaron, Tim has always been first about his team and the game. And the game Tim plays every day, and is an undisputed champion of, is the only one that matters: eternity. Tim’s lost nothing of his staggering and ready command of Scripture, St. Thomas, and Church documents, but certain blows to his health have taken their toll on his sowing and harvesting in the vineyard. And yet—seat him behind a microphone in the Catholic Answers studio or stick one in his hand behind any podium (not that he will stay behind the podium!), and the unmitigated energy and joy of his earliest apologetics days returns. "Can I get an Amen??" Marvelous indeed are Tim’s depth and breadth of knowledge and his capacity to render an involved theological or doctrinal question with extraordinary lucidity and accessibility. Most admirable about the man, however, is his certain conviction that every single soul is worthy of his time. For Tim, apologetics and evangelization have never been about the metrics or the numbers. They are about the individual human person with whom he is talking, who at that moment might as well be the only other person on earth. You hear this care in his habitual repetition of a caller’s or audience member’s first name over the course of his answer. It’s not a mere rhetorical device. It’s love. And where it most manifests is in those many, many occasions when Tim, long after a talk is over, the lights in the church all are turned off, and all the folks have gone home, has stayed up till two or three in the morning in the parking lot with that one young man still struggling with a Church teaching. In this way, he very much reflects the Good Shepherd leaving the ninety-nine behind to bring back the stray. From where does this love come? From his own palpable love of Jesus Christ and the Church he founded. Happily, our working relationship with Tim is not altogether ended; devoted listeners of Catholic Answers Live will still hear him as a guest, twice a month. Like our other regular guests and contributors, Tim now occupies the esteemed role of "fellow worker in the vineyard." Godspeed, Tim. For all of us at Catholic Answers, working alongside you has been an honor, and inspiration, and a joy.